When the control panels inside the Sugarloaf sub-station building blew up, the transformers took too much heat and were badly damaged.
When the control panels inside the Sugarloaf sub-station building blew up, the transformers took too much heat and were badly damaged.
The fire damage and the old technology in place at the sub-station pushed the municipality to call for a complete rebuild of the sub-station on Sugarloaf Hill. According to last year’s municipal budget, R22-million was allocated to the project.
The substation is important in that it provides a critical link between Eskom’s national power grid and the local grid in Makana Municipality.
Eskom’s 66 kV lines enter the substation where the voltage is stepped-down to 11kV for distribution to the town’s mini-substations and eventually to businesses and private residences.
Consolidated Power Projects (Conco) a national company that specialises in the provision of turnkey solutions for the high voltage power industry, was awarded the contract to design, install and commission the upgraded Sugarloaf substation.
Conco hired local contractor, Leonard Bowles and Sons, to do all the building work on the project which began with the complete demolition of the old buildings.
Once the rubble from the old facility was out of the way, the building work on the custom designed control room buildings could begin. Conco site manager, Andries van der Merwe, said he was very impressed with the high quality and workmanship of the local company.
The project entailed the installation of a new transformer, the replacement of all the old circuit breakers and the installation of new panels that were built in Johannesburg.
Van der Merwe explained that even the oil breakers that were not damaged by the fire had to be replaced with new SF6 gas units because no spare parts were available for the older versions.
He says the rebuilding project includes the construction of a tarred access road and is comfortably on track to meet its completion target by the end of February.
The new installation will make the local power grid more stable, but there are other elements such as the Summit substation, transport cables and several mini-substations that need refurbishing.
He also said that the newly rebuilt substation is fully capable of receiving power from the proposed new wind farm at Waainek.
Van der Merwe said that Conco had built the first grid connected wind farm in South Africa outside Darling in the Western Cape.
